++David Atkins at Washington Monthly writes about how delusional conservatives have gotten with this year's Unskewed polls showing the Donald winning. I actually received them from right-wing colleagues of mine. They show Trump preferred in California by 10pts.
++In this week's Atlantic, Peter Beinart writes about "Trump's Intellectuals". Yes, they exist and are neo-Straussians who make a distinction between dictatorship and Ceasarism.
++The Sunday New York Times is a veritable cornucopia of Trump items. Alexander Burns and Maggie Haberman writes on "The Failing Inside Mission to Tame Trump's Tongue", which documents what a disaster Trump's campaign is using inside sources.
++Maureen Dowd has found the GOP's ideal candidate--Hillary Clinton. Maureen started her campaign against Hillary Clinton in the 1990s along with William Safire. In fact those two people are responsible for Hillary is a Liar motif all these years. Of all candidates running this year, Hillary rated the most truthful of all of them.
++Ross Douthat writes this election if about two sexual revolutions--Hugh Hefner's and Gloria Steinem's--in "A Playboy for President". He lauds the religious right for putting up a fight against these cultural changes. This man is confused.
++Nicholas Kristof gets to the point in "Trump is Making America Meaner".
++Josh Marshall has an important reminder that in "Weakness Not Strength" about what all that Russian hacking means. Basically, Russia is still a basket case with nuclear weapons and that no the Russians aren't coming.
++Harry Etten tells us how Hillary Clinton can win without either Florida or Ohio. I missed the New Hampshire polls showing her in double digit leads.
Showing posts with label Peter Beinert. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peter Beinert. Show all posts
Sunday, August 14, 2016
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
How Many Wrong Statements About Iraq Did The Bush Administration Make?
++The Center for Public Integrity has released a report that documents 935 wrong statements issued or said about the Iraq War by the George W. Bush Administration.
++David Corn is at it again at Mother Jones about the CIA claiming that the W Administration lied repeatedly about Iraq and Saddam Hussein. Mike Morell, former CIA acting director, said that the most flamboyant statements by the Bush Administration bare no resemblance to the intelligence that was on hand. Like the connection with Al Qaeda, terrorism or even WMDs.
++But the neoconservatives led by Eliot Cohen,Bill Kristol and Ms. Pletka at AEI claim all this is "Gotcha" journalism and what we should be focusing on now is what to do with the present situation in Iraq.
++It seems to me that hundreds of thousands of lives lost,more American lives than in 9/11,trillions of dollars spent is worth debating.
++Bill Kristol says that the real issue is that we won by 2008 and Obama threw it all away. Say what? He says criticism now of the Iraq War is political correctness.
++Peter Beinert would like to remind us that Israel had nothing to do with it. He quite rightly reminds us that Ariel Sharon briefed George W. Bush and told him he would be destabilizing the whole Middle East if he invaded Iraq. And he did.
++Just remember--Saddam Hussein offered to leave Iraq if he could keep $1 billion for himself.
++David Corn is at it again at Mother Jones about the CIA claiming that the W Administration lied repeatedly about Iraq and Saddam Hussein. Mike Morell, former CIA acting director, said that the most flamboyant statements by the Bush Administration bare no resemblance to the intelligence that was on hand. Like the connection with Al Qaeda, terrorism or even WMDs.
++But the neoconservatives led by Eliot Cohen,Bill Kristol and Ms. Pletka at AEI claim all this is "Gotcha" journalism and what we should be focusing on now is what to do with the present situation in Iraq.
++It seems to me that hundreds of thousands of lives lost,more American lives than in 9/11,trillions of dollars spent is worth debating.
++Bill Kristol says that the real issue is that we won by 2008 and Obama threw it all away. Say what? He says criticism now of the Iraq War is political correctness.
++Peter Beinert would like to remind us that Israel had nothing to do with it. He quite rightly reminds us that Ariel Sharon briefed George W. Bush and told him he would be destabilizing the whole Middle East if he invaded Iraq. And he did.
++Just remember--Saddam Hussein offered to leave Iraq if he could keep $1 billion for himself.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Was The Iraq War A Crime or a Mistake?--Yes
++Tony Cait, political columnist at New York Magazine, goes into the debate over intelligence failure or the Bush Administration's manipulation of intelligence. It depends on what side of the spectrum you are on. The idea is that many people outside of the W Administration believed that Saddam had WMD. So naturally, the Bush Administration did too and therefore were justified.
++He cites Doug Brooks then and now as quoting the Silberman-Robb investigation into intelligence failures but he notes Brooks studiously ignores the second report, which said the Administration manipulated the intelligence.
++A bit I would like to throw in here. The invasion of Iraq was a preemptory war, a violation of the entire American military doctrine to date.
++Peter Beinert writing in the Atlantic said that it is irrelevant that people thought Saddam had chemical weapons because he had no delivery system to threaten the United States. And, about Tony Blair's "mushroom cloud" in an hour,almost all intelligence analysts had agreed that Saddam didn't have an active nuclear program. Beinert's point is that Iraq had no connection to 9-11 as the Bush Administration claimed and the intelligence community had denied. Saddam feared and loathed Al Qaeda.
++But this debate is interesting because Republicans can't seem to deal with it. And this is not the thing to become the issue in their presidential campaign.
++Where is Andrew Sullivan when we need him?
++He cites Doug Brooks then and now as quoting the Silberman-Robb investigation into intelligence failures but he notes Brooks studiously ignores the second report, which said the Administration manipulated the intelligence.
++A bit I would like to throw in here. The invasion of Iraq was a preemptory war, a violation of the entire American military doctrine to date.
++Peter Beinert writing in the Atlantic said that it is irrelevant that people thought Saddam had chemical weapons because he had no delivery system to threaten the United States. And, about Tony Blair's "mushroom cloud" in an hour,almost all intelligence analysts had agreed that Saddam didn't have an active nuclear program. Beinert's point is that Iraq had no connection to 9-11 as the Bush Administration claimed and the intelligence community had denied. Saddam feared and loathed Al Qaeda.
++But this debate is interesting because Republicans can't seem to deal with it. And this is not the thing to become the issue in their presidential campaign.
++Where is Andrew Sullivan when we need him?
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Go-Kart Races at Gitmo
Now we know why we can't close Gitmo--the US spent $500 million to construct a Go-Kart track, a Taco Bell, a Starbucks franchise and nifty neon signs that say "Welcome to the Pearl of the Antilles". I hope they allow the Uighurs to hold go-kart races to pass the time.
Rod Blagovich showed up at court today with the man who taught me how to write a lead graph for newspapers--the one and only Jimmy Breslin. In the prehistoric age, Breslin wrote for the New York Daily News and spent his time smoking stoogies in the newsroom, while I was to write a piece on the Angolan Civil War. "What's the most interesting thing you experienced?" "Walking along a riverbed at night guided by diamonds. shining in moonlight." "That's your lead." Then he went back to cheerleading the newsroom on to call into a local station, which was running a poll "Are you straight?" or "Are you gay?" . The gays had just taken a lead but with Jimmy's prodding the newroom pushed the poll back to a lead for straights. Cheers went up and deadline was just ten minutes away and he sat down and pounded out his column right on time.
Chris Hedges posted an article on Truthdig "The Christian Fascists are Growing Stronger". While I agree with his analysis, I disagree that they will become the force I had feared. Just keep them away from the school system.
Bernard Henri-Levy wrote a scathing op-ed in Europe against the Free Gaza Flotilla and lamented that a writer of the stature of Henning Mankell could fall trap to the disinformation. He did spend one sentence lamenting the stupidity of Israel's actions. But unnoticed was Henri-Levy's communications within Israel itself, where he asked Israelis to act more responsibly because people like himself, who had defended Israel against the European Left for years, have found it tougher to get traction in light of recent actions.
Former McCain aide, Tony Cordesman send a blast across the bow with the CSIS publication "Israel as a Strategic Liability". The piece found its way into articles in the New York Times. Cordesman warned that the depth of America's moral commitment to Israel does not justify or excuse actions by an Israeli government that unnecessarily make Israel a strategic liability when it should remain an asset. So far, there hasn't been the usual AIPAC blowback against Cordesman but there will be.
However, the same day of the seizure of the Turkish ferry, the head of Mossad Meir Dagan addressed the Knesset and said openly that Israel had become a strategic liability to the United States. A speech that received little press in the United States. He attacked the notion that it was somehow because Obama was elected President of the United States. He said he had been quietly warned by the George W, Bush administration about this and that the problem doesn't go away by waiting out Obama's term.
Even conservative columnist Ross Douthat has published two pieces now that call on Israel to adopt new strategies or else face destruction from within.
We've now had the Turkish Prime Minister vow to join the next flotilla, accompanied by the Turkish Navy. This was followed by Iran vowing to send its aid agencies escorted by the Revoutionary Guard. And, to top it off, German Jews are going to send their own ship to Gaza filled with musical instruments. "All tactics, not strategy" Bibi is now transitioning from F troop to McHale's Navy. We should have some naval battles shortly.
The good news is that there is now a spirited debate within Israel among the elites over the whole fiasco. For the last two days,Haaretz running op-eds blasting the "commando complex" and the "bunker mentality" of the coalition government. Prestigious voices such as Amos Oz and David Grossman have weighed in, arguing that Israel must understand the limits of forces. Doron Rosenblum quotes an Israeli official as actually calling the absence of Palestinian terror a "propaganda problem".
Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni submitted a motion of no-confidence motion in the Netanyahu government for its botched handling of the Gaza flotilla and claimed Israel could have avoided the international isolation it now faces. She accused the government of destroying Israel's stance in the world and its security in the Middle East. "This is not just a temporary event that will pass. This is a continuous process under which Israel is becoming isolated from the world." Naturally, Bibi demanded the opposition stand by him as he did the government during Operation Cast lead and the Second Lebanon War.
Meanwhile Joe Biden was trapsing around Egypt saying that the United States would be seeking ways to ameliorate the effects of the Gaza embargo and like a good scout called on the continuation of the proximity talks.
For trivia nuts, Bibi Netanyahu is a Facebook friend of Orly Taitz, the Queen of the Birthers, who is running for Secretary of State in California. If conservatives face an epistemic closure, the Likud party and their allies are also, surrounding themselves in the American echo-chamber of the right surrounded by people like Rev. John Hagee and others of the Religious Right. The tea Party movement itself is funded by two of Likud's biggest donors.
Until this Gaza episode, I had not known there were actually Israeli self-styled " neoconservatives" with journals and think-tanks of their own. From some of their writings, they appear to be very Americanized in their arguments. One of which argued that Israel should use the threat of its nuclear arsenal to make Arab states do what Israel wants. It's like they were channeling Dick Cheney's American nationalism. We now have Israeli exceptionalism but American-style. It's so strange that Ariel Sharon now towers over this crew as a wise statesman. It almost seems like he should wake up from his coma to shake some sense into the ruling coalition.
Col. Wilkinson has appeared now for an extensive three-part interview on Dick Cheney and his effects on America. Col. Wilkinson argues that Cheney is not a neo-con but an American nationalist, harkening back to the days of the America Firsters. While I had always associated America Firsters with isolationists,he argues that it was really not so. Instead,they argued for American nationalism and unilateral action abroad. What we conveniently forget is that the George W. Bush era was in fact the time of "National-Greatness Conservatives", the brainchild of William Kristol. Part of this greatness would be achieved by adopting the policy of "pre-emptory war" and massive de-regulation to fuel the economy. The glorious aftereffects we will be feeling for a long time to come.
If you like the idea of a more small ball America, Peter Beinart has a new book out--The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris (Harper, 2010)--in which he argues that the United States as the world's sole superpower has faded with the disaster of the last administration and can be replaced by an America that focuses on its internal development and cultivating a different relationship with the world. Once I've digested it, I'll report on its ideas.
Today are the primaries in about a dozen states, which will be interesting to the extent that lunatics win their party's nominations. Off everyone's radar are the primary races among Republicans in Montana where there is a good chance the "white supremacists" will seize the party. South Carolina continues to amuse with charges that the Republican woman candidate for governor is a "ragtop", who is ashamed of her God (she's a Christian) and whose father, a Sikh, is organizing a Sikh conspiracy to take over the State. Also, she has been accused of having two affairs. For Democrats, the race to watch is the primary between Blanche Lincoln and Bill Halter. But it's an all-Republican show. By tonight, we will know whether Nevada will pit the Chicken Lady or the Teabagger against Harry Reid.
Lastly, Sarah Palin's new fence is higher than the old Berlin Wall. Joe McGinness is probably the greatest threat to our national security.
Rod Blagovich showed up at court today with the man who taught me how to write a lead graph for newspapers--the one and only Jimmy Breslin. In the prehistoric age, Breslin wrote for the New York Daily News and spent his time smoking stoogies in the newsroom, while I was to write a piece on the Angolan Civil War. "What's the most interesting thing you experienced?" "Walking along a riverbed at night guided by diamonds. shining in moonlight." "That's your lead." Then he went back to cheerleading the newsroom on to call into a local station, which was running a poll "Are you straight?" or "Are you gay?" . The gays had just taken a lead but with Jimmy's prodding the newroom pushed the poll back to a lead for straights. Cheers went up and deadline was just ten minutes away and he sat down and pounded out his column right on time.
Chris Hedges posted an article on Truthdig "The Christian Fascists are Growing Stronger". While I agree with his analysis, I disagree that they will become the force I had feared. Just keep them away from the school system.
Bernard Henri-Levy wrote a scathing op-ed in Europe against the Free Gaza Flotilla and lamented that a writer of the stature of Henning Mankell could fall trap to the disinformation. He did spend one sentence lamenting the stupidity of Israel's actions. But unnoticed was Henri-Levy's communications within Israel itself, where he asked Israelis to act more responsibly because people like himself, who had defended Israel against the European Left for years, have found it tougher to get traction in light of recent actions.
Former McCain aide, Tony Cordesman send a blast across the bow with the CSIS publication "Israel as a Strategic Liability". The piece found its way into articles in the New York Times. Cordesman warned that the depth of America's moral commitment to Israel does not justify or excuse actions by an Israeli government that unnecessarily make Israel a strategic liability when it should remain an asset. So far, there hasn't been the usual AIPAC blowback against Cordesman but there will be.
However, the same day of the seizure of the Turkish ferry, the head of Mossad Meir Dagan addressed the Knesset and said openly that Israel had become a strategic liability to the United States. A speech that received little press in the United States. He attacked the notion that it was somehow because Obama was elected President of the United States. He said he had been quietly warned by the George W, Bush administration about this and that the problem doesn't go away by waiting out Obama's term.
Even conservative columnist Ross Douthat has published two pieces now that call on Israel to adopt new strategies or else face destruction from within.
We've now had the Turkish Prime Minister vow to join the next flotilla, accompanied by the Turkish Navy. This was followed by Iran vowing to send its aid agencies escorted by the Revoutionary Guard. And, to top it off, German Jews are going to send their own ship to Gaza filled with musical instruments. "All tactics, not strategy" Bibi is now transitioning from F troop to McHale's Navy. We should have some naval battles shortly.
The good news is that there is now a spirited debate within Israel among the elites over the whole fiasco. For the last two days,Haaretz running op-eds blasting the "commando complex" and the "bunker mentality" of the coalition government. Prestigious voices such as Amos Oz and David Grossman have weighed in, arguing that Israel must understand the limits of forces. Doron Rosenblum quotes an Israeli official as actually calling the absence of Palestinian terror a "propaganda problem".
Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni submitted a motion of no-confidence motion in the Netanyahu government for its botched handling of the Gaza flotilla and claimed Israel could have avoided the international isolation it now faces. She accused the government of destroying Israel's stance in the world and its security in the Middle East. "This is not just a temporary event that will pass. This is a continuous process under which Israel is becoming isolated from the world." Naturally, Bibi demanded the opposition stand by him as he did the government during Operation Cast lead and the Second Lebanon War.
Meanwhile Joe Biden was trapsing around Egypt saying that the United States would be seeking ways to ameliorate the effects of the Gaza embargo and like a good scout called on the continuation of the proximity talks.
For trivia nuts, Bibi Netanyahu is a Facebook friend of Orly Taitz, the Queen of the Birthers, who is running for Secretary of State in California. If conservatives face an epistemic closure, the Likud party and their allies are also, surrounding themselves in the American echo-chamber of the right surrounded by people like Rev. John Hagee and others of the Religious Right. The tea Party movement itself is funded by two of Likud's biggest donors.
Until this Gaza episode, I had not known there were actually Israeli self-styled " neoconservatives" with journals and think-tanks of their own. From some of their writings, they appear to be very Americanized in their arguments. One of which argued that Israel should use the threat of its nuclear arsenal to make Arab states do what Israel wants. It's like they were channeling Dick Cheney's American nationalism. We now have Israeli exceptionalism but American-style. It's so strange that Ariel Sharon now towers over this crew as a wise statesman. It almost seems like he should wake up from his coma to shake some sense into the ruling coalition.
Col. Wilkinson has appeared now for an extensive three-part interview on Dick Cheney and his effects on America. Col. Wilkinson argues that Cheney is not a neo-con but an American nationalist, harkening back to the days of the America Firsters. While I had always associated America Firsters with isolationists,he argues that it was really not so. Instead,they argued for American nationalism and unilateral action abroad. What we conveniently forget is that the George W. Bush era was in fact the time of "National-Greatness Conservatives", the brainchild of William Kristol. Part of this greatness would be achieved by adopting the policy of "pre-emptory war" and massive de-regulation to fuel the economy. The glorious aftereffects we will be feeling for a long time to come.
If you like the idea of a more small ball America, Peter Beinart has a new book out--The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris (Harper, 2010)--in which he argues that the United States as the world's sole superpower has faded with the disaster of the last administration and can be replaced by an America that focuses on its internal development and cultivating a different relationship with the world. Once I've digested it, I'll report on its ideas.
Today are the primaries in about a dozen states, which will be interesting to the extent that lunatics win their party's nominations. Off everyone's radar are the primary races among Republicans in Montana where there is a good chance the "white supremacists" will seize the party. South Carolina continues to amuse with charges that the Republican woman candidate for governor is a "ragtop", who is ashamed of her God (she's a Christian) and whose father, a Sikh, is organizing a Sikh conspiracy to take over the State. Also, she has been accused of having two affairs. For Democrats, the race to watch is the primary between Blanche Lincoln and Bill Halter. But it's an all-Republican show. By tonight, we will know whether Nevada will pit the Chicken Lady or the Teabagger against Harry Reid.
Lastly, Sarah Palin's new fence is higher than the old Berlin Wall. Joe McGinness is probably the greatest threat to our national security.
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